Coach Knight(again), Weather/Grocery shopping, Movie review, Misc.

Yesterday was another big day in the Lubbock sporting world. The Texas Tech Red Raider Men's basketball team beat the number 5 ranked Kanas Jayhawks. Since it was a perfect day(6 inches of snow on the ground) to be indoors I decided to partake of this fun. While I have never really been a big basketball fan or even one who played the game I really enjoy watching the coaching of Bob Knight and am in awe of basketball players in general. When I was first exposed to real basketball players at the University of Houston I decided then that they are awesome athletes and can do just about any form of athletics they chose to do. They have hand to eye coordination, strength, speed, agility, coordination and the ability to react very quickly. Kind of like hockey players but they don't skate or hit people with a long stick. They also play in an atmosphere that puts them close to the fans and noise(good and bad, depending on whether you are at home or not), so their performance is close at hand and mistakes are magnified. So, these athletes are a pleasure to watch, for me. Back to Coach Knight, it has been said that he gets the most out of really average basketball players and then makes the good ones even greater. But the most important thing is that he teaches the true fundamentals of basketball and creates a true team atmosphere. He enjoys the teaching atomosphere of college basketball and has never considered going to the pros. When ask one time if he would coach in the pros, he gave a classic Coach Knight response: "Hell, I don't even watch the pros. If the NBA was on Channel 5 and a bunch of frogs making love were on Channel 4, I'd watch the frogs-even if they came in fuzzy." Now to the game with the Jayhawks. It appeared that after initial tip off that the Raiders were as cold as the outside temperature, falling behind by 10 points within the first 4 minutes. They were so cold on the shooting they could have built a snowman in the arena, without any snow. But, they didn't lose their poise and by half time they went to the dressing room with a 3 point lead. It was amazing to watch them overcome the deficit, move ahead and then protect their lead. The other neat thing was that the Jayhawks had this look about them that they were going home with a run away victory and all would be in their favor at the final buzzer. Since I just don't get the real mechanics of basketball, like I do football, I couldn't tell if they would be able to keep up this good work or if it would be to knaught in the second half. But, they came out of the dressing room ready to play and even put up a 12 point lead with about 10 minutes to go in the game. It looked like they would hold on to this lead if they continued to play in this fashion. Then I reached down to pick up my coke and take a drink of it, and it seemed that Jayhawks scored three 3 pointers and the lead was to 3, then it rocked back and forth and in the final seconds the Raiders took the victory, 69-64. They scored two 2 point buckets(am I getting good on this bb jargon or what?) in the closing 21 seconds and the fans went beserk. When the game was over the student body, numbering over 4,100(total crowd 11,000+) went to the floor and created a chant of "Bob, Bob, Bob!!"(note: The General does not like to be called Bob or Bobby unless you are the Joint Chief of Staff, or the King of England, you must say, Coach Bob Knight, but evidently the students hadn't read his book, so they got away with it). This mob scene was something to see and convinced me that if there was ever a need for a "mob" fight or street warfare, like in "Gangs of New York", I would want these Raider students on my side. The one thing that I have seen since the arrival of Coach Knight is the student body support of his tenure. They come out to games and they love him. He has done a lot for the overall spirit of the university and West Texas is proud to have him as a citizen. Texas Tech has really built some winning traditions in their athletic department over the years, with football, baseball, basketball(men and women's), track, golf,tennis, etc. An article in the paper this morning pointed out that the success of one sport also breeds success in the other sports. The football team made history in the Insight Bowl by making up the largest deficit in their comeback victory over Minnesota and then Coach Knight broke the all time winning record of Coach Dean Smith. So, this increases the pride of the university and spreads through out the city. It even motivates Marti and I to improve on the Buffalo Springs Ironman 70.3 and work hard to match all the achievements at Raiderland. Funny thing is, I was offered a full footall scholarship at Tech back in the stone ages and made the choice to go off to that far away land of Houston(better deal and more money, ooops can't believe I said that, but it was true). Of course Marti wasn't even born yet, so she knew nothing of Raiderland at that time. Now to see how the General and the team do for the rest of the Big 12 season.

There were big headlines in the paper on Thursday that said that they city would receive up to 16 inches of snow, in the next 2 days. So, what this does is create a panic atmosphere to go and buy groceries. It just so happens that I needed some staples to get me over the weekend, like milk, etc., so I just went by the store not thinking of this panic mode that was going on. I was not there because of the headline, I was there because I like to have milk for my dry cereal and we were out. When I entered the store I couldn't believe my eyes, line after line of people wanting to check out. So, I go around the store and get my few items(numbered less than 10 but the express lane was not being honored today, so it did me no good) and then head to one of the many lines, that really did not seem to be moving. Everyone seemed to be pretty calm and secure with their baskets, but we were not getting anywhere. I then decided to enlighten myself by picking up the "People" magazine, afterall I hadn't been informed about Jolie/Brad, Britney/Paris, Simpson, etc., in a few days so it gave me a chance to catch up on these beautiful people(not). For the life of me I don't get it, why is the world so fascinated by these type people? You say, "well the world isn't and doesn't really care." The argument from me on that would be "someone" is buying these magazines and they must want to read this trivia trash or they wouldn't sell. But, it did make my standing in line go shorter or seem shorter and I didn't buy the magazine I just gazed at it and put it back. Does that make it a used magazine or what? The shopping experience was excellent since I knew where everything was that I wanted and I didn't have a list. This made is easier since I went to the area I knew I would find the milk and along the way I saw some other things that I wanted or needed. Four things I do not like to run out of, saltine crackers, dill pickles, radishes, and cherry tomatoes. I can make a meal out of these four items and grin all the way to the fridge.

Funny thing happened with the snow, they actually closed the theaters so there was no movie watching this weekend, except for DVD movies. I decided to watch "XXX" with Vin Diesel, while riding the bike trainer. Dude, this is a very good movie, not academy award good, but real entertaining and this Diesel guy is a great bad/good/cool/tough/energetic action hero. I have to give it a **** rating, just for the action scenes. The plot is even good to. I didn't get to finish it, but I will today. This guy gets the bad guys like no other and also gets the girl whenever he wants to. Go rent it or buy it, it can't be too expensive and is great to watch during a treadmill or bike trainer workout.

Now to watch some football!!

greerman